Barbara Walters Price

Unplugged

This past weekend, I attempted to unplug.  No e-mail. No blogs.  No facebook.  No twitter.  No internet.  No nothing.

How did I do?  I give myself a B-.  Yet, that B- felt pretty good.

It was nice to mostly get away from the constant flow of information because there is just too much of it. 

I decided to simplify my information intake.  While I am interested in a great many things, I only have the time and energy to put to use certain things.  I found myself being "plugged in" and knowing a little about a lot. It got so that I would take headlines as content (prime example: after seeing a headline about Flutter, I just assumed it was the "next thing" not realizing it was a hoax.  Shame on me (but it is a funny hoax)). 

The economy has forced many of us to simplify our lives by doing more with less.  The same philosophy should be true for information flow.  The internet allows us to find information quickly and cheaply.  It levels the playing field to a certain extent.  Many voices are speaking into the ether.  Some have information that I can use.  Others, not so much.  Just because someone is interesting doesn't mean I have enough time to read them, friend them, or follow them.  Life is about choices so we have to choose wisely how to best use our time.

I encourage everyone to unfriend and unfollow as appropriate and to pare down the information inflow.  Then, unplug at least one day a week. 

For a great read on the folly of too many social media friends and/or people to follow, see Debra Helwig's post "Too Much of a Good Thing" at her blog Service Minded.

Sisters

I love this blog about the sisters Kristin and Kayla.  Their dad is a talented photographer.  Click here and prepare to be charmed (scroll down for the blog).

Photo credit: Jwlphotography.com

Confessions of a too-nervous mom

Thank heavens Paula Spencer of Chapel Hill, NC wrote Newsweek and thank heavens Newsweek published what she wrote in their "My Turn" weekly column.  (Not mentioned in the Newsweek article is that Paula is an "Author * Magazine Writer * Columnist * Family/Health Specialist * Editor * Mom - And not in that particular order."  She also has a blog: "Momfidence".)

The title of Paula's article is "We Protect Kids from Everything but Fear."  She makes a great case for parents to just chill out.  She says:

But you can't go around afraid of everything. It's too exhausting! No matter how careful you are, bad stuff happens (diaper rash, stitches, all your friends assigned to another class). And it's seldom the end of the world.

I've got to tell you a secret - I'm one of the nervous moms she talks about and I never thought I would be!  I'm not as nervous as some (it would never occur to me to put our girls in long-sleeve bathing suits and I don't bother about skinned knees and believe that children have a constitutional right to ice-cream and chocolate chip cookies).  I am, however, certainly more nervous than, say, my mother was.  I worry about what schools to send our girls to, their making friends, about them falling off the top of their play set and breaking their neck, even what to bring for show-and-tell for gosh sake - and I'm beyond tired.  I have to keep reminding myself that I made it through childhood just fine even though it wasn't perfect - and they will too. 

Thanks Paula for reminding me and all moms to calm down, chill out, and enjoy our kids.  There will be struggles and disappointments but those are the things that teach lessons.  There will also be times of great joy and fun.

As an aside: Here's Paula's take on the "My Turn" column.  Visit her blog, Momfidence, which she describes as "Momfidence! is about worrying less, winging it more. Parenting by the seat of your commonsense mid-rise mom jeans."

Newsweek My Turn: Who is Paula Spencer?

March 25, 2007

"We Protect Kids From Everything But Fear" is the title of my 'My Turn' essay in the current issue of Newsweek.

Cool!

But:

On the down side, I'm pretty disappointed that there is no mention of "Momfidence" --either the book, column, or the blog--in the bio. Aside from losing out on a chance to make a wider link to those things (since the My Turn piece, as you can tell from the title, is right up my usual alley), not mentioning either Momfidence or the fact that I'm a  journalist in the bio is a slightly disingenuous. It just says "Spencer lives in Chapel Hill, NC" which makes me sound like your basic ranting mommy. Which would be fine, except I am also the author of "Momfidence" and a half-dozen other parenting books, a columnist for Woman's Day and a contributing editor at Parenting and Babytalk--in other words, this is my profession as well as my opinion.

On the plus side, Page and Margaret are mighty cute in the foto running with the essay. We had a great time being photographed that afternoon by Patrick Davison, who teaches at UNC and  also happens to be a Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer!   

You know you're a mom to little kids when ...

You know you're first and foremost a mom to little kids when you reach into your purse for your lipstick and all you find is a pacifier and crayons.

Fourth of July

Hope everyone had a happy 4th.  We had a nice low-key day.  Our neighborhood held it's annual 4th of July parade.  Parents show up with kids in tow on bikes, scooters, in wagons, or in strollers all bedecked in red, white, and blue.  The fire department is kind enough to send two trucks, one to lead us all around a long block, the other to bring up the rear.  Along the parade route, neighbors come out and sit in their lawn chairs in the front yard and wave.  The parade is corny and amazingly fun. 

After the parade is over, one of the fire trucks leave (I guess in case there might be a fire somewhere) while the other one hooks up to and opens a fire hydrant on a side street and shoots the water from the top of the truck down the street so the kids can run and play in the water. 

Just the kind of Americana event you gotta love.

What's up with that?

My three year old is emotionally attached to her bathing suit.  She sleeps with it.  As soon as she gets up in the morning, the pajamas come off and the bathing suit goes on.  Wonderful-stay-at-home-dad has convinced her to take it off before they go out to run errands "to keep it safe."  But then, as soon as she gets home, it goes back on.  And, no, we don't have a swimming pool.

A typical morning for wonderful-stay-at-home-dad

An e-mail from my husband the morning after we returned home from our trip to Indianapolis for a reunion of the families we traveled to China with when adopting our oldest daughter.  Keep in mind that we have a 3 year old and a 1 year old.  He titled it "Something about the potty." 

I love that man!

Foodies - Part II

Thom Singer commented on my "Foodies" post and I wanted to share it with all of you who don't read comments.  (An aside: if you are not in the habit of reading comments, try it for a week.  Chances are you'll like it, you'll learn from them, and you'll find other blogs that you might want to bookmark. Go ahead.  Give it a try for just one week.)

Now, back to Thom. 

Thom said:

I love good food, in fact my wife wrote a cookbook four years ago (www.madatmartha.com) which caused me to be a fat-foodie, and I had to lose 30 pounds!!

If you are a true lover of all things food you need to visit Austin Texas....as there the new Whole Foods Market (their international headquarters and MEGA store) is here. It is unlike anything you have ever seen. It is the top tourist attraction in Austin. My brother said "why are you taking me to a supermarket...we have Whole Foods in California"...then he saw it and said "WOW, we don't have a store like this!!!!"

So, if you're in Austin, go to the Whole Foods Market and be amazed.  And Thom, I'll check out your wife's cookbook.  Well, since I don't cook, I'll ask wonderful-stay-at-home-dad-husband to check it out.  Have a great weekend.

Off to Indy

Okay, so I know that the "experts" advise bloggers to write only about their targeted subject matter (and for me, that's professional service firm marketing) and not to get personal.  Since my short blogging sabbatical, I've decided to basically thumb my nose at that advice.  The blogs that I most enjoy mix the personal with the professional. 

So, WARNING, this is the personal stuff ...

Why send your kids to swim camp when you can send them to Cash Camp?

Now is the time when parents are sending their kids off to camp for a week (or weeks) at a time.  While my two rug rats are too young to go (and I'm not sure I could send them off with total strangers although their stay-at-home dad certainly could), I thought this tidbit from the most recent issue of Inc. was interesting. 

"Send Your Kids to Cash Camp

... try an approach that's more fun and interactive, such as sending them to money camp.  Connie Proulx, of Lafayette, CO, sent her 13 year old daughter, Elaine, to Money $ense, a day camp operated by the nonprofit Young Americans Center for Financial Education (www.yacenter.org), in Denver.  Elaine also attended the center's Be Your Own Boss camp and now runs a small jewelry-making business.  She has put some of her money into a certificate of deposit and contributes a portion of her business profits to charity.  'All my friends talk about how they'll work for her one day,' says Connie.

The center has two five-day finance camps: Money $ense, starting in late July, is for kids who've finished sixth or seventh grade and covers budgeting, investing, credit and taxes.  Junior Money Matters, in late June and early July, is for youngsters just out of second or third grade.  The younger children learn the history of money and play games, such as banking bingo.  Everyone spends time running the center's mock town.  Each camp costs $175 per child, and sessions are held at facilities in Denver and Lakewood, Co.

... Find more finance camps at www.mysummercamps.com and www.campchannel.com." (by Amy Esbenshade Hebert)

The camp for the younger kids sounds a bit too nerdy to me - "banking bingo" - YAWN. 

The camp for the older kids does sounds interesting.  Exposing kids to the idea of entreprenuership at such a young age and then teaching them how to be good stewards of their money sounds very valuable.  But it is valuable only as long as it's fun and not just a mini-B-school and they don't come home peppering me and wonderful-stay-at-home-dad with questions about our investing philosphy.

Why waste all that time swimming and making crafts at camp when it could be spent teaching your kids how to one day own the camp!  Hmmmmmmm.